Womanloses bid to reverse cruelty to dog conviction

Bethlehem resident can retrieve pet after she pays fines.

A Bethlehem woman found guilty of cruelty to animals lost her bid to have the conviction tossed out, but she can have her dog back if she pays court costs and fines.

Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito on Thursday denied the summary appeal filed by Carly Roxandich. Zito said Roxandich can reclaim her bichon Spike as soon as she pays $615 and court costs still to be determined.

A woman who answered the telephone at the South Side address listed for Roxandich in court documents said Roxandich didn't live there, then hung up.

In his ruling, Zito gave the following account:

Roxandich left Spike with her parents while she was attending college and living away from home. Roxandich is a teacher, the ruling said.

Spike "turned up five times at the dog pound as a stray" between December and June. Roxandich was told May 7 that Spike "was urinating blood and [Roxandich] signed an agreement that she would take Spike to a veterinarian within seven days." She ignored the agreement "because to her, Spike appeared healthy."

"On June 21, the dog pound sent Spike to a veterinarian, who determined that Spike was suffering from bladder stones. Poor Spike. The court finds Spike had been suffering from this condition since at least May 7," the ruling said.

Zito wrote that Roxandich, "by wanton neglect," violated the cruelty to animals statute. He wrote she should not have signed the agreement if she did not intend to comply with it.

In addition, the ruling said Roxandich "wantonly deprived Spike of necessary shelter by continuing to entrust his care to her parents, who had repeatedly demonstrated an inability to afford him adequate shelter. It is a danger to Spike and to the commonwealth for him to be running the streets and turning up as a stray. This

did not happen one or two times, but five times in two years."

Despite his finding that Roxandich neglected the dog, Zito wrote, "her violations were not so egregious that she should not be afforded another opportunity. The court expects that [Roxandich], once a student, now a teacher, is capable and seeks to act with increased maturity and responsibility in meeting her obligation to Spike."

Northampton County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals officer David Gilbert said District Justice Nancy Matos-Gonzalez of Bethlehem convicted Roxandich of the summary charge after the SPCA seized the dog in June.